Love Really Hurts Without You
{Infobox Single | Name = Love Really Hurts Without You | Cover = | Artist = Billy Ocean | Album = Billy Ocean | B-side = You're Running Outa Fools | Released = 23 January 1976 UK | Format = | Recorded = Metropolis Studios 1975 | Genre = British soul | Length = 2:58 | Label = GTO Records | Writer = Billy Ocean (as Les Charles), Ben Findon | Producer = Ben Findon | Last single = "Whose Little Girl are You" (1975) | This single = "' Love Really Hurts Without You'" (1976) | Next single = "L.O.D (Love on Delivery)" (1976) | Misc = }} "Love Really Hurts Without You" is a song recorded by Trinidad-born UK soul singer Billy Ocean. The song – written by Ocean under his real name name Leslie Charles with the track's producer Ben Findon – was the second single recorded in the name Billy Ocean (although the singer had had several previous releases using other stage names) and provided Ocean with his first chart record in 1976. The song remains tied with the 1977 #2 UK hit "Red Light Spells Danger" as Ocean's second best all-time UK charting record, after "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going" which had a four-week #1 UK tenure in 1985. It is often cited for its Motown influence. Background At the time of his single's success, Ocean was quoted (indirectly) as considering himself "the most surprised person in the world that 'Love Really Hurts Without You' became a hit. It's his tenth release, and he'd got to the point where he assumed his records would be flops."Radio & Records Vol 4 #17 (7 May 1976) Ocean had been pursuing a singing career in London by 1969, with a stint singing demos at Southern Music Studio on Denmark Street leading to Ocean's working as a studio "gofer" for producer Ben Findon. At the time of his meeting Findon, Ocean was working on the assembly line at Ford Dagenham: (Billy Ocean quote:) "I would do sessions during the day and after I had finished a session I would go work at Ford all through the night. It half killed me, but while I was doing that I met this producer who gave me the opportunity record 'Love Really Hurts...'." The inaugural collaboration between Ocean and Findon was in fact the 1974 single "On the Run" which was credited to Scorched Earth, after which "Whose Little Girl Are You" became the first single recorded and released (8 August 1975) in the name Billy Ocean. Prior to meeting Findon, Ocean had worked as a pattern cutter at a fashion house on Savile Row: when a co-worker mentioned that she was selling her piano Ocean impulsively borrowed £23 from his boss to purchase it > - (Billy Ocean quote:) "We carried the piano up to the third floor and it fitted perfectly in my little bedroom" (Ocean was living in his parents' council flat off Brick Lane) - and taught himself to play it: (Billy Ocean quote:) "The novelty of it was coming home every lunchtime and evening and tinkling my piano until eventually I did get something out of it which was the song 'Love Really Hurts Without You'. My left hand started playing the melody and my right hand just did some down beats and my voice just started coming out with opening lyric 'You run around town like a fool and you think that it's groovy' and the song just came together there and then." Recording and Impact After producer Ben Findon touched-up Ocean's composition "Love Really Hurts Without You" was recorded at Metropolis Studios to be released 23 January 1976: debuting at #34 on the UK Top 50 dated 21 February 1976, the single rose as high as #2 on the chart dated 27 March 1976, held off from #1 by "Save Your Kisses for Me" by Brotherhood of Man. (Billy Ocean quote:) "I was on the assembly line when I heard that song on Radio Luxembourg. I felt so good, because I knew I was free to leave. So I left." "Love Really Hurts Without You" afforded Ocean an international hit with high rankings in national hit parades around the globe: its March 1976 US single release drew a somewhat muted response, the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 peak of "Love Really Hurts..." being #22. Ocean would state in 2015: "A few Americans might remember 'Love Really Hurts...' because I believe it was a bit of a US hit." (Ocean would not again place a single on the Hot 100 until 1984 when "Caribbean Queen" would top the chart.) Chart performance (Billy Ocean version/ 1976) R&B chart/ Alex Brown cover "Love Really Hurts Without You" is unique among Billy Ocean's twelve Hot 100 hits in that it failed to also rank on the Billboard R&B chart, where Ocean would place an overall total of eighteen singles beginning with the followup to "Love Really Hurts...": "L.O.D (Love on Delivery)" (#55 R&B). A major factor in Ocean's "Love Really Hurts..." failing to rank as an R&B hit was that concurrent with the single's US release a cover version by Alex Brown was recorded for the Chelsea Records Roxbury label with John Madara producing.Record World Vol 31 #1501 (27 March 1976) p. 30 After hearing Alex Brown singing on the sessions for a Wayne Newton album, Chelsea owner Wes Farrell had suggested that she cut "Love Really Hurts..." – (Alex Brown quote:) "We went in the studios that night: it was recorded by midnight and was pressed up and in the shops about three days later."Black Music & Jazz Review Vol 3 (1980) p. 27 The Alex Brown version of "Love Really Hurts Without You" debuted on the Hot Soul Singles chart in Billboard dated 8 May 1976 – the week after the Hot 100 debut of the Billy Ocean original – and despite rising no higher than #65 R&B''Billboard'' Vol # (8 May 1976) pp.=62, 88 the Alex Brown version evidently satisfied the R&B market demand for "Love Really Hurts..." as the Billy Ocean version was never ranked on the Billboard R&B chart, while ranking on the Cash Box Top 100 R&B chart only for three weeks with a #91 peak reached 1 May 1976 on which chart the Brown cover reached its Cash Box R&B peak of #60.Cash Box 1 May 1976 p.26 Cash Box also ranked the Alex Brown version of "Love Really Hurts..." in its Looking Ahead to the Top 100 chart of singles in positions #101 – #120 at #107 (24 April 1976) and #120 (1 May 1976).Cash Box 24 April 1976 p.31''Cash Box''1 May 1976 p.35 Despite Cash Box improved statistics for Brown's "Love Really Hurts..." as opposed to the single's Billboard stats, the Billy Ocean original was ranked significantly higher on the Cash Box Top 100 than on the Billboard Hot 100 as the Cash Box Top 100 afforded the single a #16 peak,Cash Box 22 May 1976 p. 4 six positions above its best Hot 100 ranking. Remixes and remakes In November 1986 a remixed version of Billy Ocean's "Love Really Hurts Without You" had a single release which briefly charted in the UK at #81 and which in March 1987 would spend one week on the Netherlands Single Top 100 at #98. On Belgium's Flemish chart – which had afforded the original Ocean version a #6 peak – the 1986 mix of "Love Really Hurts..." rose as high as #21 in January 1987. "Love Really Hurts..." has since generated two successful Belgian remakes via two distinct Flemish renderings, the first a thematic departure from the English original: "Met z'n tweetjes", recorded by Bart Kaëll which in 2013 reached #3 on the hit parade rankings for Flemish acts: the track was one of eight new songs included on the Kaëll retrospective album release 30. In 2015 Willy Sommers recorded a more faithful translation of "Love Really Hurts...": "Liefdesverdriet Doet Zo'n Pijn", for his album Gisteren wordt vandaag: (Willy Sommers quote:) "Everyone has had to deal with heartbreak. The song has always appealed to me: despite the sad lyric there's cheer in the upbeat music." Issued as the album's fifth single in March 2015, "Liefdesverdriet..." reached #15 on the hit parade rankings for Flemish acts. A new remix of Ocean's "Love Really Hurts Without You" was issued in 1994. The song has also been recorded by Bad Boys Blue (album Heart Beat/ 1986), Ankie Bagger (album Where Were You Last Night/ 1989), Gordon (album A Song For You/ 2008), Marion Maerz (de) (as "Liebe ist mehr als ein Spiel" German) (1976), Stein Ingebrigtsen (multi-artist album Treff 76-2/ 1976), Dominic Kirwan (album A Little Bit More/ 2008) and Six (as "Love Really Hurts") (album This Is It/ 2002). References Category:1976 songs Category:Billy Ocean songs Category:Songs about love Category:Songs written by Billy Ocean Category:1976 singles